


If Not For You

by auntieshakespeare



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon, Redeemed Hordak, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:48:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21761722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auntieshakespeare/pseuds/auntieshakespeare
Summary: Hordak finds himself with unwanted company, but it turns out better than expected.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 107





	If Not For You

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Rhey, a dear friend and eternal muse 
> 
> Title from Tom Petty's "Alright For Now"

He can hear the footsteps, just barely, outside the doors of his sanctum. Padded footfalls followed by the slightest clicks, seconds of space between them. 

Catra. 

Why she insists on leaping about instead of walking the hallway like everyone else is beyond his concern. What is in his immediate concern is her proximity to his chambers at this time. 

The doors open without warning or permission, provoking him to growl, "Get out! You have no right to be here."

Catra smirks, absently filing her claws for show. "That's where you'd be wrong, Hordak. I have every right."

"Well technically I invited Scorpia to visit, but you're kind of a package deal right now so you're neither right nor wrong. Semantics! Not my favorite that's for sure!"

Entrapta's voice cuts through the tension just in time for Scorpia to burst through the chamber doors.

"Boy am I glad to find you here, Wildcat. Adora would have killed me if I lost you in the Fright Zone. Oh hey Hordak! Entrapta invited me over."

"So I have been informed." His unamused expression is far from as intimidating as he'd like it to be, but he has difficulty expressing anything but praise towards Entrapta. 

She shrugs with her long hair, letting out a nervous chuckle. "I meant to warn you, but I was distracted -- you should know all about that by now."

"Oooh yes, let's see this distraction." Scorpia raises her pincers into the air before dropping them suddenly, "But ah, first, protective gear. Sea Hawk knitted me some gloves to keep from damaging any delicate bits."

Hordak's ears twitch. "You intend on touching--"

"Oh no no no, I'm a hands-off gal today," Scorpia says, as she covers her first claw. "This is ju'sht n ca'she I f'll." 

One long tendril of Entrapta's hair snakes around to help Scorpia pull on the other mitt, which she holds between her teeth but can't quite manage to pull up, lack of dexterity coupled with the slippery yarn complicating the matter. Catra rolls her eyes and shoves Entrapta's hair out of her way to finish the job earning a hiss from Imp and a beaming smile from Scorpia.

"There, it's on, can we just get this over with?" 

Scorpia tuts, "We have to put on your gloves first, Catra. Which... I probably should have done before... mine... Oh dear I didn't think this through at all."

Hordak growls again, louder now, startling Imp from his perch on a computer monitor, who swoops down to the floor with a grumpy screech. "Catra will not need gloves because she will not be touching my child."

Entrapta nods, "Yeah, normally I encourage hands on learning, but I don't know your vaccination history and she is an awfully fragile bot."

"Baby," Hordak corrects gently. 

"I really have to work on that," she says scratching her head sheepishly, "It's just that she looks so much like Imp I almost forget I didn't build her outside me, I built her inside me."

Scorpia sighs fondly at their banter, holding her protected claws up to her face. "You two are just the picture of domesticity, I could eat ya both up."

"Don't do that," Entrapta says, hair guiding them towards the nursery, "Amelia would have to raise herself and the data does not show a good outcome for her in that scenario."

Entrapta takes data very seriously, perhaps the only thing in life she takes seriously, so the nursery is unlike any other room in the Fright Zone. The Red City, as it's been newly christened (though Fright Zone still slips out in many a conversation) is under heavy construction, the crumbling metal structures being replaced by new, safer Etherean built structures. It's a loud place at the moment, but one would never guess that by the nursery, which is soundproofed to the extreme, the only sounds within the gentle tinkling noises of a music box, gifted to the baby by Glimmer.

Slumbering away in a crib carved out of driftwood (a gift from Mermista), lay Hordak's favorite creation.

"Ameliorate, Princess of The Red City," Hordak murmurs, hand reaching into the cradle to brush one of her long blue hair tendrils out of her face. Her bat like ears wiggle happily with the familiar touch.

A squeal tears out of Scorpia's throat, though she does her best to stifle it with her mittened hands. "If she isn't the cutest little bat on the whole planet!"

Imp lands on one of Scorpia's claws and she coos at him too, even as he flicks her with his tail.

Catra's face is tight, but even Hordak can see that she's not unaffected by the sight. 

"Cool, it's a baby, let's go." 

Scorpia frowns, shoulders drooping, "Catra, please. Just. Try and enjoy the moment? For me?"

There's a long silence wherein Scorpia is looking pleadingly at Catra, Catra is glaring down Scorpia, and Entrapta is bouncing excitedly on her hair. Hordak is exhausted by it all and continues to soothe his daughter, running a finger across her forehead and down her nose, eliciting more sighs and wiggles. 

"Fine."

Scorpia leans in, pleased. "Because we're friends?"

Catra folds her arms and looks away, muttering, "Because we're friends."

Scorpia's squeal of joy is too loud this time and Amelia's eyes pop open, one a brilliant red, the other a deep pink. It's not a huge contrast, but the appearance has an effect on Catra.

"She has eyes like mine." 

Entrapta nods enthusiastically. "Heterochromia. It's a mutation! Isn't it wonderful?"

Hordak reaches into the crib and carefully lifts his daughter out, cradling her with more gentleness than he knew himself to be capable of before. She blinks up at him before yawning, small cooing sounds that build into much louder protests following. 

"Think she's hungry?" Scorpia wonders, eyes wide. Catra's ears are down and back, nervous and a little surprised by the intensity of such small vocal chords. 

"Infants consume vast amounts of resources," Hordak says, eyes on Catra, "You would often wail until the entire nursery would wake if you were not fed in a timely manner."

Catra's scowl elicits a booming laugh from Scorpia. "I bet you were the fussiest kitten!"

Imp repeats, "Fussiest kitten!" three times before Catra tries to slice at him, Scorpia's laughter continuing while Entrapta claps and squawks out a laugh, rolling back on her hair to laugh with her whole body as Catra chases Imp around the room like a cat chasing a laser. 

"Entrapta," Hordak murmurs, kissing his fussy child on the head, "the baby is hungry."

"Right! Fork her over, I am the milk machine." Her hair pulls Hordak towards her, arms reaching out to take Amelia from his arms. Once she's settled into the crook of her mother's arms, Entrapta pulls Hordak in for a kiss, his face burning at the gesture, ears flat. 

Scorpia's eyes are shiny with tears, a wobbly smile across her face while Catra just looks disturbed.

"We'll leave you to it then," Scorpia says, scooping Catra up in the crook of her elbow. "Send word if you need anything and Auntie Scorpia'll be here in a jiffy."

As Scorpia ushers them through the door Hordak hears Catra say, "Auntie Scorpia?" and Scorpia reply, "Well and Aunt Catra too of course!" before they fall out of ear shot. 

His gaze falls, as it always does, back onto Entrapta. She's bare chested now, her shirt tossed on the set of drawers near the crib. Their child is feeding away, hands kneading at Entrapta's breast, eyes closed, face in utter rapture at the simple pleasure of eating. 

"Your friends are a disturbance," he says, unsure of how to segue into this conversation.

Entrapta's brows furrow. "I was a disturbance once. Remember? In your lab? Look how that turned out. I mean, that's too small of a sample size to actually use as a reference in any clinical sense but--"

"You are nonetheless correct."

She cocks her head, confused.

He groans, hating this sentence more and more the closer he gets to forcing it from his lips. "You are correct. That they are like you in this way."

One tendril of hair pokes him on the shoulder. "Hordak, are you trying to say that you want my friends around?"

He growls, while Imp lets out a a chattering laugh. "For your sake it would be... beneficial. To be around other people that bring you. Happiness." 

Entrapta's smile is soft. "I'm happy already though, here with you and Imp and Emily."

Hordak cups one tan cheek, sighing softly with the touch of her skin. How he loves this woman. The things he would do for her. 

"You deserve to be happier. Think of it as an analysis. The correlation of time spent with your friends in relation to the happiness you feel." 

"That's a pretty subjective data pool," she says, before raising her voice joyfully, "but that will just mean more rigorous testing!"

She pulls Hordak to her once more, burying her face in his chest, careful not to squish Amelia, who is mostly dozing now that she's gotten her fill. 

"You know," she says slyly, burping their daughter before depositing her back into bed. "I'm already shirtless."

He blinks, unsure of where she's going with this. "Yes, you are?"

There's a tug on the clasp of his dress, Entrapta's hair worming around his body. "What if we got more undressed?"

Understanding floods his mind and his face goes red once more. "You wish to--?"

She nods rapidly, entirely naked now, hair tossing the rest of her clothes onto the dresser with her shirt. "I'm thinking of another study I could do. Number of orgasms we can share between ourselves before the baby wakes again. It will require repeated testing though." 

He nods, throat too dry suddenly to respond. 

They walk together to their bedroom, adjoined to the nursery, stark naked and flushed with anticipation.

The study is a resounding success.


End file.
